Mario Draghi, whom many wish to supply as a facelift to a European Union now discredited by Kaja Kallas and her like, presented his agenda on Feb. 2 while receiving an honorary degree from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, in Louvain, Belgium.
The recipe is not new, but now Draghi proposes it “à la carte.” He calls for a centralized, European federalist state to confront China and the United States.
“Europe risks becoming subordinated, divided, and deindustrialized,” if it does not turn itself into a “genuine federation,” he said. He went on, “Power requires Europe to move from confederation to federation” because the global order is “now defunct.”
He called for a “pragmatic federalism” that “breaks the impasse we face today without subordinating anyone…..
“Member states opt in. The door remains open to others, but not to those who would undermine common purpose. We do not have to sacrifice our values to achieve power,” Draghi said, mentioning the euro as “the most successful example,” with some EU countries starting and others joining at a later stage.
“Of all those now caught between the United States and China, Europeans alone have the option to become a genuine power themselves. So we must decide: Do we remain merely a large market, subject to the priorities of others? Or do we take the steps necessary to become one power?
“A Europe that cannot defend its interests will not preserve its values for long.”
